Yet another article about a hacker with Asperger syndrome

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It is an old article, from 2003, but still sickening either way.
http://management.silicon.com/governmen ... 456,00.htm

They say he "suffers" from Asperger syndrome! I think it is just wrong that the only thing mentioned about people with Asperger syndrome is if they do something bad, like hacking!

I know I was accused of "hacking" before, just because I had access to the DOS prompt! But now I do more, and do penetration testing for the school, but they never mentioned that in the article in the local news paper.

People who make Asperger syndrome as a bad disease, and makes people into 1337 hackers is just wrong! Most people I know who are hackers with Asperger syndrome are white hat hackers such as me! But people don't realize that.

Kind of pisses me off that Aspies only make the news for reasons like this.

Behave badly and you'll make the news, regardless of who you are.

Don't disgrace your community. How simple is that?

one of the major things [maybe the most major?] on aspergers syndrome is the high /technical skill in computers,computer companies/places are said to be full of aspies and other spectrumers.
this would make sense why a hacker story happens to be about an aspie if there are a lot of aspies into that.

and the 'suffers' bit,it is possible to 'suffer' from as or hfa,but no one else is able to say that for anyone but themself,plus suffer usually means 'disease',which no form of ASD is.
it's probably better they said suffer than 'mental illness' though [have read an article linked to on a disability forum today saying learning disabilities are mental illnesses],they could have done a lot worse.

ASD doesn't oblige you to break the law. If yours is a talent that can be used unwisely or destructively, remember that autism and Asperger Syndrome can justify not a single broken law. Being a computer whiz is fine, just don't think that it entitles you to commit a federal offence because you're so darned good and you happen to be autistic.

My school and a few friends pay me to hack their network and tell them about vulnerabilities and try to fix the holes in their security system. Does that make me a hacker? Yes it does. Does that make me a bad hacker? No it does not, I am a white hat, I hack for people, not against people, I am not black hat.

As for some people, they are just ignorant as to what I do. I know many people who know what I do as a cheap service at school, and they ask for me to not hack them and put a virus on their computers (which there probably is with their apps, and most of the people run Vista, which I call the "Microsoft Virus")
I say, if someone is too ignorant to realize that what I am doing is trying to provide help and not destruction, just let them think what they want!

Don't assume ignorance so soon, psmaster! I understand how you do the wrong thing for the right reason and get paid for it. White hat hackers are like Vegas casino cheats who are payrolled by the very casinos they steal from. But this is not to imply that you've ever been a criminal. It's encouraging to hear how someone can turn a negative into a positive. Do you hunt down black hats in cyberspace and help police catch them?

If an aspie has a gift with computers, how often does a school/employer support and encourage that gift, compared to how often the aspie gets no support, and ends up held back, feeling bitter about wasted talents.

No matter what wrong things a person does, it's their life experiences that made them that way.

I do not help catch them, I just help prevent them. Although I made an app for when someone is doing something they shouldn't be doing (eg. loading a virus onto the computer) the schools network admin will be notified via email and instant message.

Nice. I'm glad for you, psmaster! Sounds like you've found a good niche. Being allowed to exercise and even improve your computer talents in a positive environment is way cool.

Using the word 'hacker' is enough to upset people. Just call it something like a 'security expert'.

And for penetration testing I sometimes use the word 'user access testing'.

yes, well, I don't call myself a hacker, other people do.

Well, ironically I am going to college for Computer Security this fall, which certainly involves Ethical Hacking. Basically I have have discovered I can learn almost anything dealing with computers at an extremely fast pace (generally about 110% the speed it's taught, literally), so I figured I might as well go into the most interesting field I can. Being able to pass background checks is also a major plus in this area.

However, while I would say hackers of all kinds probably have a slightly higher rate of Asperger's Syndrome then the general population, It's certainly not Asperger's Syndrome=Hacker.

I have to ALWAYS respect hackers and their skills, whether they're autistic or not. I wish I could be that good and I am trying to get there. I need a master to be an apprentice to

Anyone remember the Hacker's Manifesto... " This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. "
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~SOULES/MEDIA112/hacker.htm

EDIT: Wait, these are crimes?

"During the trial Caffrey was accused of being part of an elite hacking group, and having a DDoS script and the IP addresses of more than 11,000 vulnerable servers on his computer."

Under UK Law?

Yes, computer hacking is indeed a crime.

Holy crap, I was caught "hacking" at school, because I found a way to get into the blocked command prompt, ping IPs, and get into any website I wanted to go to.
I was expelled.
I did no harm.
I didn't even visit anything innappropiate (our content filter is completely ret*d. It blocks stuff like google images)
I went to myspace, I believe.